Ready to Rumble, Senator Carl Levin is on a roll. In preparation for the Goldman Sachs hearing on Tuesday, Levin released Goldman Sachs emails (pdf). From Senator Levin's press release:

“Investment banks such as Goldman Sachs were not simply market-makers, they were self-interested promoters of risky and complicated financial schemes that helped trigger the crisis,” said Sen. Levin. “They bundled toxic mortgages into complex financial instruments, got the credit rating agencies to label them as AAA securities, and sold them to investors, magnifying and spreading risk throughout the financial system, and all too often betting against the instruments they sold and profiting at the expense of their clients.” The 2009 Goldman Sachs annual report stated that the firm “did not generate enormous net revenues by betting against residential related products.” Levin said, “These e-mails show that, in fact, Goldman made a lot of money by betting against the mortgage market.”

The below CBS News clip sums up the emails (h/t MTGM).

The Wall Street Journal did a story on Goldman Culture, including having hamburger eating contests. Honestly I don't see much difference between Goldman Sachs corporate culture and other corporations, except (ahem), the pay is much, much better!

This is news? Try Bill Gates mandatory employee games if you want to enter the land of competitive weird. Or better yet, look at the absurd interview processes of many of these corporations. Google hired based on which chair interviewees sat in. Betting on burgers ain't a big deal, even when celebrating the demise of yet another homeowner.

The Goldman Sachs emails, well, frankly I could walk into almost any corporation in America and see employees cheering and being thrilled at the demise of the U.S. middle class. Just watch the stock market! A layoff is announced and the stock increases in value. Executives routinely offshore outsource employees and their pals cheer over that great cost savings move.

Face it. Goldman Sachs is just one example of a completely sociopathic society which cares less what their actions do to real people, even their colleagues. This behavior is not unique to Goldman Sachs. The real problem is they were better at it than most. But who let them do it? Our Government.

Hopefully readers know I'm no pal of Goldman Sachs, but it's American corporate culture as a whole that manifested itself in a burger eating contest, See the real screw job for what's really important in this story.